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- Evolution (source)
2 a: a process of change in a certain direction : unfolding b: the action or an instance of forming and giving something off : emission c (1): a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state : growth (2): a process of gradual and relatively peaceful social, political, and economic advance d: something evolved
3: the process of working out or developing
4 a: the historical development of a biological group (as a race or species) : phylogeny b: a theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations ; also : the process described by this theory
5: the extraction of a mathematical root
6: a process in which the whole universe is a progression of interrelated phenomena
- Creation (source)
2: the act of making, inventing, or producing: as a: the act of investing with a new rank or office b: the first representation of a dramatic role
3: something that is created: as a: world b: creatures singly or in aggregate c: an original work of art d: a new usually striking article of clothing
The only term I decided not to define, mainly because it is so vaugue, is intelligent design. This, in most cases is a negotiated ideology, it can mean anything from an engineered evolution to just simply God isn't stupid. There is a grey area between evolution and creation though, this can range from many different ideas and if you're belief falls into this category then by all means please give us your definition of intelligent design.
Ok, now that the terms are somewhat defined, or over defined, I will tell you all what I believe. I believe in devolution, that we (some 6.5 or 7 billion people) are collectively the retarded offspring of Adam and Eve. That God created our planet in 6 days, and one day to God is one day, not a few million or billion years. We as humans screwed up and have been paying for it ever since. Roughly I believe that our planet is between 20,000 to 30,000 years old in relation to our solar system (meaning it has been in our solar system for that long, you don't have your first year birthday three months after your born do you? Who knows how long we were in the celestial 'womb') I do believe in a form of evolution but it is called convergence (source see definition 3), the idea that God created dog, not pit bull, golden retriever, rottweiler, etc. God created Human, not Black, White, Asian, etc. And yes God created monkey, not chimpanzee, orangutan, gorilla, etc.
Now I am not going to go into lots of details and scientific facts (you will have to wait for my book for that.) I also will not defend my opinion or attack anyone elses opinion. Please be respectful and share with us what you believe, not how stupid what other people believe in is. Remember, no matter what you may think, all of these are theories, they have not found a missing link (with all the missing pieces ((full skeleton?)) and widely accepted by all scientific communities), God has not appeared on earth with a power point presentation and blueprints for earth (and when He does return does He really need to explain himself to us? or us to Him?)
So please, be respectful and open minded, that doesn't mean you have to agree and let everything settle in your mind, just that you are willing to listen and respect others.
3 comments:
please forgive my lack of verbal skills (spelling and grammar)
In order to comment on this and not be misunderstood, I have to point out some of my stances. First, I find that we as humans, made in the likeness of God, do not have the mental capacity of God. We can discuss this topic as much as we like, but I do not believe we were ever meant to understand it as we currently exist. The facts about creation presented to us through God's word are to be taken on a faith based system.
This being said, I also think that we humans are incapable of creation or the ability to understand creation. We are able to imitate what we sense.
That being said, I want to share my thoughts on the subject of time spent during creation. I am very interested in this. I see a day as one rotation of the Earth. We have defined that as 24 hours, with small error. With the scientific education that I have (very very little) I have learned some of the "laws" of nature that have been created by God to put our world in order. From what I have understood these laws to be, 96 hours does not seem to be the time it took to have our planet be in its habitable condition. Just an example of why I think this: Evidence has been shown that earth plates have moved to create things like mountains and oceans etc...if these things were moved in the period of a day, I would assume that the friction involved with this fast movement would melt the rock plate and our mountains would be much smoother. This is an off the wall example, but just one to put into perspective the time I have understood was needed for our planet to form was greater than a week.
To counter this thought, perhaps the earth was not spinning as fast during creation. now we see the day as being 24 hours, but perhaps it took much longer for a day to happen.
I have known some to think that statements like these are made to take away the wonderment of creation. I do not feel this way. I think it is an amazing way to look at creation. God created our world though constructs of balance. Like when you fold up a piece of paper and cut little triangles out of it, and when you unfold it it is an intricate snowflake. God created our world through details that led to the final result. The best part is his knowledge of the result prior to its existence. That is Creation to me-Bringing something into existence that has never been with an expectation of the result.
I like what Zach has pointed out about the earths rotation, in fact that is one argument refuting evolution, in that if the earth is slowing at a certain rate it would not of been inhabitable for a certain length of time. However I have one point that may have been overlooked. In Genesis it seems pretty clear that God created Adam in a fully matured state. He did not, apparently, create Adam as a baby and wait for him to mature. The reason this is important is that it may relate to the state in which everything else was created. Such as mountains already being mountains not just a certain place on a earth which had the capacity to grow into mountains. It was pointed out that there are things which we as humans may or may not ever fully understand. This seems applicable here. How God created things in their present state, thus possibly breaking the barriers of our "discovered" scientific laws, seems impossible. Which brings me to another point that I would like to throw out there. Scientific laws are things which we as humans have discovered. We by no stretch really understand science to its full potential, and likely never will.
Hi Matt, I had no idea that you had an interest in such a fundamental philosophical/existential topic. I must say it is interesting hearing other points of view on this subject. I would like to share some of my thoughts about this. First of all, my background is fairly secular and scientific. I do mostly believe in evolution, but I do also believe that there is a higher power that has done things that we as humans will probably never be able to fully comprehend. That being said, I think that there are quite a few laws of science that I take as pretty well accepted that put into question many of the base ideas of creationism in scriptures such as the Bible. I think probably the most clear example being the fact that science has proven the earth revolves around the Sun. I would imagine most people take this as fact nowadays, despite some of the contrary beliefs of the Bible. Although this does not refute the existence of God for me, it does at least confirm to me that we are but a small cog in a vast clockwork of a creation, and are not the central figure that scriptures suggest. From this idea, I do not feel like we are a "super special" creation that God set aside to make different from everything else. Did Eve really get pulled from Adam's rib just so he wouldn't be lonely? I don't think so, although I don't think the Bible goes into this, how were all the other female sexes of other species made? Regardless, I personally do not take the scriptures as sacrosanct in explaining the mechanics of how we came to be. They were written by humans thousands of years ago, not deities, so I don't think everything in there is 100% accurate. However, we are special in one way that science and evolution does not have an answer for either. Evolution really doesn't explain how we changed from a single cell organism all the way into a complex mammal that became self-aware, that could reason, love, hate, and essentially have a soul. Where did that come from? Evolution really can't explain that we "gradually gained a soul" over millions of years. The magical point where we "ate from the tree of knowledge" and attained the power of free will, are things still unexplained by science and probably never will be. So where does that leave me? Neither creationist or evolutionist, or both? There is a middle ground that I think we all lie in somewhere. I probably lean a bit towards the evolution side, but I think there is a ton of grey area that we will probably never find answers to in our lifetimes, yet we will keep searching because that is our nature.
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